Newcastle's owner, Mike Ashley, faces a potential backlash from supporters after the announcement that St James' Park is to be rebranded as the Sports Direct Arena as part of the club's plan to sell the naming rights to the stadium.

In a move which ends 119 years of history, Ashley has temporarily renamed the ground after his company – at no financial benefit to Newcastle – and invited external backers to purchase the rights. By following Arsenal and Manchester City the club believes it will become "financially self-sufficient" in the long term.

Despite Alan Pardew's side sitting unbeaten in third place in the Premier League, the announcement looks set to antagonise relations between the board and the fans, which had been improving thanks to the team's performances.

Mark Jensen, the editor of The Mag fanzine, said: "I'm very, very disappointed that with the team sitting in the top three that the club have taken the opportunity to basically bring up such a negative.

"It's very hard to take. Everyone understands the economics of football in that you need to maximise the revenue but I think most fans would rather the ground not be renamed at all. Most fans will see this as pretty opportunist with the team doing well on the pitch and when the fans are just enjoying two weeks when they'll be in the top three no matter what happens.

"It comes when people were maybe thinking: 'Who knows, maybe he [Ashley] has had second thoughts about how he is running the club.' It just seems very opportunist and it certainly won't help the mood, but obviously we've got more or less the full ground capacity guaranteed.

"Apart from having more exposure for Sports Direct, and I can see the benefits for Mike Ashley to do that, I don't see how there are any benefits whatsoever for anybody connected with Newcastle United."

The club's managing director, Derek Llambias, insisted there would be significant benefits. Newcastle hope to strike a combined deal for shirt and stadium sponsorship worth about £10m a year. "Our aim for Newcastle United is to continue to deliver success for the fans and everyone associated with the club," Llambias said. "We must make this club financially self-sufficient in order to deliver that success.

"To grow sustainably and allow us to invest in our future, we will need to rely increasingly heavily on commercial income. These are very difficult economic times and the board have a responsibility to maximise all revenue streams for the benefit of the club.

"Stadium rebranding offers a lucrative way for clubs to secure significant additional income. When we initially launched our plans at the end of 2009, we invited sponsors to attach their brand to that of St James' Park.

"However, it has become clear that in order to make the proposition as commercially attractive as possible, a potential sponsor must be given the opportunity to fully rebrand the stadium."

Llambias said that a shirt sponsorship deal might also be available to any company interested in taking on the naming rights of the stadium.

"Naming the stadium the Sports Direct Arena helps up to showcase the opportunity to interested parties," he said. "We are now actively seeking a long-term sponsor wishing to acquire full naming rights for the stadium."

"Our shirt sponsorship deal with Northern Rock will also expire at the end of this season, which presents would-be sponsors with the opportunity to acquire both the naming rights and shirt sponsorship deals."